I experimented with making rosemary wreaths for our sale on Saturday, and we sold every one of them.  Today was threatening rain, wind and temperatures in the 50’s (note: this is cold in California), so I put together an indoor lesson about rosemary for University of Wednesday.

First I harvested about 400-500 sprigs of rosemary from my yard.  (Like the laundry basket?)  I also cut 10 inch lengths of floral wire, and 24 pieces of 20 inch thicker gauge wire. I also gathered spools of ribbons.)

Beforehand I popped a whole lot of popcorn with olive oil and fresh rosemary.

After talking a little bit about the history and uses of rosemary, we tied the mound of  sprigs at each table into threes with floral wire, and then wound the clusters to the wire circles they shaped with the thicker wire.  Students finished the wreaths with ribbons/raffia, and we dined on popcorn.  

For the last five minutes we took a quick garden walk and identified the rosemary bushes in three different locations. After working with them, touching them, smelling them, tasting them—they were easy to identify.  Students happily went home with their wreaths—this one as a hair piece!